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Open Water Diver

Beginner

Diver certification begins here. Start with PADI's online eLearning course. Move to the pool and practice your new skills. Then experience four open water (ocean/lake) dives.

Description

If you’ve always wanted to take scuba diving lessons, experience unparalleled adventure and see the world beneath the waves, this is where it starts. Get your scuba diving certification with the PADI® Open Water Diver course – the world’s most popular and widely recognized scuba course. Millions of people have learned to scuba dive and gone on to discover the wonders of the aquatic world through this course. To enroll in a PADI Open Water Diver course (or Junior Open Water Diver course), you must be 10 years old or older. You need adequate swimming skills and need to be in good physical health. No prior experience with scuba diving is required.

Academic

The PADI Open Water Diver course consists of three main phases:

Knowledge Development ( online, independent study or in a classroom) to understand basic principles of scuba diving

Equipment

In the PADI Open Water Diver course, you learn to use basic scuba gear, including a mask, snorkel, fins, regulator, buoyancy control device and a tank. The equipment you wear varies, depending upon whether you’re diving in tropical, temperate or cold water.

Check with your local dive center about the gear you’ll use during this course and get advice about everything you need from your PADI Instructor.

Getting Started

You can also start learning with PADI’s home-study materials – Open Water Diver (available on iOS, Android and via Web Viewer) or the Open Water Diver Manual and Open Water Diver Video (a book and DVD package). Stop by your local PADI dive shop to enroll in the course, get your materials and start reading the book and watching the video. Your PADI Instructor will schedule time with you to check your progress and make sure you understand important scuba diving information.